Why You're NOT Building Muscle!

This article takes a close look at the reasons why you're not building muscle and gaining weight. Read this is you're having trouble getting big!

Here’s a question I see time and time again in online bodybuilding & fitness forums:

“Hi, I have been working out for __ [insert long time period here] months and I have only gained __ [insert small amount of weight here] pounds. I train hard and have been taking XYZ supplements. I can’t gain weight or get stronger! Please help!”

This is an all too common story for people with no experience or knowledge on how to build muscle and gain weight. In most cases, after trying to gain weight for several months the person will quit. That’s a pity, because the only thing stopping the person from progressing is knowledge.

In this article I’m going to discuss in detail the possible reasons why you’re not building muscle. I’ve got 15 reasons listed below, which covers 99% of reasons why you’re not growing.

15 Reasons why you’re not building muscle:

1. You’re not getting enough calories

Calorie consumption is the solution to about 90% of the complaints lifters have about not being about to get bigger and/or stronger. Your body requires a certain number of calories to maintain your current weight. This figure is known as basal metabolic rate (BMR), and varies from person to person depending on your weight, muscle mass, activity level, age etc. If your calorie intake is lower than BMR, you will lose weight. This is known as a calorie deficit. If your daily calorie intake is higher than your BMR, you will gain weight. This is known as a calorie surplus.

How do you know how many calories your body needs?

The easiest way to calculate your BMR is to use our BMR calculator. This calculator uses the Harris Benedict Formula (one of the most accurate methods) to calculate your daily calorie requirements. Go over to the calculator and work out your daily calorie requirements. Most people are surprised at how many calories they need just for maintenance!

Let’s focus on your goal. You want to build muscle and gain weight, so your calorie intake needs to be more than your expenditure. Take the figure the calculator gave you and add 500. This is how many calories you should be eating every day to build muscle.

Example:

Your calculated BMR is 2,760 calories

You require 3,260 calories for weight gain

You require 2,260 calories for weight loss

Calorie consumption is the solution to about 90% of the complaints lifters have about not being about to get bigger and/or stronger.

2. You’re not eating the right foods

Generally speaking, if you’re eating excess calories every day and training with a decent workout you’ll grow. But, if you’re not eating the right foods, the chances are that you’ll be limiting your potential, putting on excess body fat, and not growing enough lean muscle.

The best way to plan your muscle building diet is to split it up into protein/carbohydrate/fat (P/C/F) ratios. Arguably the best ratio of muscle growth is 30/50/20. This mean you’re getting 30% of your total calories from protein, 50% from carbohydrates and 20% from fats.

So let’s look at our 3,260 calorie diet from above and break it up:

30% of 3,260 is 980 calories from protein.
Divide by 4, and that’s 244g protein per day

50% of 3,260 is 1630 calories from carbs.
Divide by 4, and that’s 408g carbs per day

20% of 3,260 is 650 calories from fat.
Divide by 9, and that’s 72g fat per day

Now all you need to do is spread those amounts over 6-7 meals per day. For more detailed information on building a diet see our how to create a bodybuilding diet article.

3. You’re not eating enough meals

When you eat is just as important as what you eat. The days of eating “3 square meals” are long gone. Research has shown that eating more smaller meals is not only great for promoting a fast metabolism, but helps maintain, lose, and gain weight. Think of your body like a log fire. If you put too much wood on at once, the fire burns slow and sluggish. But if you gradually add more wood as the fire gets bigger, it burns more efficiently and gets bigger.

You should be aiming for a minimum for 6 meals spread at even intervals throughout the day. You want to make these meals as even as possible, but it’s OK to eat a bit more at breakfast/lunch/dinner if you don’t have time during the other breaks.

So you’re probably thinking, “I don’t have time to eat all those meals”. If I had a dollar for every time I heard that I could retire. The truth is you can, it just requires a bit for forward planning. There are endless ways you can cook and store food for meals throughout the day. Spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon cooking up your lunches and snacks for the week. Use your imagination. Here’s some examples of foods you can cook, then freeze or refrigerate.

Chili

Stir fry

Mexican chicken & potatoes

Pasta bowls

Potato and chicken salad

Beef stew

The other option is weight gain shakes. There’s nothing easier than banging some water into a shaker with some powder, having a shake, and drinking. Good meal replacement shakes usually contain around 600 calories with good amounts of protein, BCAAs, glutamine and carbohydrates. It’s literally a meal in a cup. All you need is a few shaker bottles, add the powder before work, then just add water and drink on the job. Simple.

4. You’re not getting enough water

Water is nature’s wonder supplement, it’s essential for a whole host of bodily functions. Many lifters underestimate the importance of being hydrated well before they step into the gym. If you feel dehydrated just before you’re about to train, it’s too late, you won’t be able to rehydrate yourself time. Keeping yourself hydrated should be a priority from the moment you get out of bed. Dehydration is a serious problem, and in extreme cases can lead to death. Here are some signs of dehydration you should look out for:

Feeling thirsty (obviously)

Fatigue. Feeling tired for no apparent reason.

Dry mouth and possible sore throat

Headache

Loss of appetite

Dark urine with strong odor

Drinking an adequate amount of water is easy, and there’s no excuse why you cannot do it. Just take a bottle wherever you go and keep sipping out of it throughout the day.

Some supplements, like creatine, may lead to dehydration. If you’re using creatine monohydrate you should increase the amount of water your consuming.

If you’re not gaining it may be due to lack of motivation. Can you honestly say you put in 100% every time you hit the gym?

5. Your workout routine sucks

Choosing the right routine to suit your body type, training experience and goal is vital. Many new lifters get their workout routines from magazines and articles written by professional bodybuilders. These workouts are not designed for beginners, and will only lead to a lot of wasted time, energy and frustration.

A good workout routine needs the following:

Training days arranged to allow for adequate rest

Muscle groups arranged so overtraining does not occur

Muscle groups arranged so that each muscle can be worked to maximum effect

A good selection of compound and isolation exercises

Good warm up and cool down

We have a big database of workouts on this site that have been designed for beginners right through to advanced lifters. Check out our workouts section.

It’s also important to know and understand the characteristics of your body type. Different body types respond to different methods of training. What works for your friends may not work for you. For more information on body types see our “which of the body types are you?” article.

6. You’ve been using the same workout too long

Building muscle is simply the process of the body reacting to increased stress. You put stress on your muscles in the gym, and they grow bigger to cope with the stress. The body is very quick to adapt to any changes, this includes your workout. Once your body adapts to your workout routine, it will not see the need to build more muscle or get stronger. You have to change.

As a general rule you should change your workout when you stop getting stronger or heavier, or after about 8-10 weeks. If you’ve been doing your workout for 12 weeks and you’re still growing, don’t change it, everyone is different – if you’re still growing, stick to it. We have plenty of great workouts on this site for all experience levels. Check out the workouts section.

7. You’re not focused on progression

Progression builds muscle, without it you won’t grow. Progression is the constant increase of weight, stress and intensity required to tell your body that it needs to grow more muscle.

You should aim to improve at least one aspect of your workout every week. It could be increasing the weight, it could be your increase the reps, but it has to be something. This is where a training log becomes so important. Before every workout you should look back at what you did the previous week, exact weights and reps. Choose the areas you want to improve, and get in the gym and do it.

If you’re finding that you can’t progress (ie you’re not getting stronger) read the other points in this article, especially the points about diet and workout routines.

8. Your exercise technique is bad

You’re doing the right exercises, but are you doing them right? If you want to place the maximum amount of stress on the muscle, and prevent serious injuries, you have to execute every movement with good form. Don’t copy what others are doing in the gym, this is how bad habits spread. Here are a few general rules that apply to most exercises:

It’s important to know and understand the characteristics of your body type. Different body types respond to different methods of training.

9. You’re doing the wrong exercises

This goes hand in hand with a solid workout routine. Doing the wrong exercises is a common mistake made by new lifters. Usually, the lifter is either doing too many isolation exercises and not enough compounds, or only doing exercises they “like”.

Big compound movements recruit the most muscle fibers and place the most stress on the body. These are your big muscle builders. A good compound to isolation ratio is 2-1, or 3-1. So for every 2-3 compound exercises you do, you do 1 isolation. This of course does not apply to arms, forearms, and calves where most exercises are isolation movements. Here are some big mass builders that you should be including in your routine:

10. You’re not training your legs

Want to increase your bench, increase your squat. Yeah, yeah, I know we all want big biceps and chests, but here’s 2 reasons why you should train your legs just as hard as the rest of your body.

Firstly, think long term here. Do you want to get the ostrich look?! A big upper body on thin legs does not look good, in fact I’ve seen it in extremes, and it’s laughable! Secondly, exercises like squats have an impact on your whole body. Not only does it use most of your upper body muscles in the movement, but this exercise is so stressful that the body releases growth hormone to try and cope with the load. This effects the entire body.

Leg training is hard, but essential for a well developed physique. See the leg exercises section for detailed instructions on how to do leg exercises using strict technique.

11. You’re not getting enough rest

This point kind of goes back to point #5, your workout routine does not allow for adequate rest. Rest is just as important as training. Many people believe that muscle building takes place in the gym, but it’s actually the opposite. Weight training is actually creating millions of tears in the muscle tissue. In effect, you’re actually damaging the muscle. Your muscles get “pumped up” because of the swelling caused and increased blood flow to the area. The actual muscle building (repair and growth of new muscle tissue) takes place out of the gym, when you’re resting and sleeping.

There are 2 ways you may not be getting enough rest. First, you are training too many days without taking as day off. Although you may not feel it, you body needs days of complete rest to recover from hard training sessions. It’s not just the muscles that need to recover, it’s your whole neurological system, tendons, joints, even your brain need rest.

Secondly, and this comes back to your workout routine again, you may not be allowing muscle groups to fully recover between training sessions. If you do not allow enough recovery time, your muscles will not grow. It’s that simple. If your muscle group is still sore from the previous workout, don’t train it. For most muscle groups, one training session per week is adequate. Some smaller muscle groups like calves and abs may be trained twice, but still need at least 2 days of rest between sessions.

12. You’re not getting enough sleep

Sleeping is you body’s time to recharge. For you, the weight trainer, it’s your body’s time to repair damaged muscle tissue, and grow more muscle. As I discussed in the previous point, no rest, no muscle. Aim to get around 7-8 hours of good quality sleep every night. Here’s some tips on how to get a good night’s rest:

Only sleep when you’re tired. There’s no point it trying to when you’re not.

Develop sleeping rituals, going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.

Refrain from stressful activities for 1-2 hours before bed

Don’t take stimulates within 4-6 hours before bed time

Have a light snack before bed

13. Your post workout nutrition sucks

Your post workout shake/meal is arguably the most important meal of the day. When you finish your workout, your muscles are crying out for nutrients that were lost during training. Your protein levels are down, creatine levels are down, and glycogen is depleted. Most people think that a simple whey protein shake is all that’s needed after your workout. This is not true. While a protein shake is better than nothing, it still falls well short of a good post workout shake. Here’s what would be better:

Shake containing the following:

30-40g of whey protein powder

5g of creatine

60-70g of dextrose

1 hour later:

A well rounded meal containing protein, complex carbs and fats.

You see above I’ve pimped out your post workout shake by adding dextrose and creatine. Dextrose is the simplest of simple carbohydrates. Studies have shown that taking dextrose in these doses creates a huge spike of insulin in the body. Insulin is an extremely anabolic hormone and helps move nutrients quickly throughout the body. This means that the creatine, protein and BCAAs are quickly absorbed into muscle cells where they’re needed for muscle repair to begin.

14. Your pre-workout nutrition sucks

Carbohydrates are the key to having adequate fuel in your tank for a hard workout. There are 2 types of carbohydrates, simple and complex. Simple carbohydrates (like dextrose mentioned above) are quickly converted into energy for use in the body. Complex carbohydrates take longer to digest and process, but provide you with long lasting energy. Complex carbohydrates are your primary fuel source for your workouts.

What you eat throughout the day, and 1.5-3 hours before your workout is going to affect how much energy you have. Like I mentioned at the start of this article, you need to space your meals out evenly throughout the day. If you eat a big breakfast, a big lunch, then train after work, you’re probably going to feel tired and sluggish. What would be better a better approach would be to eat a small breakfast, mid morning meal, smaller lunch, afternoon meal, then train after work. This gives you about 2 hours between your last meal and training, which is ideal.

So what should you have in your pre workout meal? This meal should be well rounded, containing protein, complex carbohydrate and fats. The amount of calories in the meal depends on your personal diet plan. Try and keep the protein/carbs/fats (PCF) ratio to around 30/50/20. Here is some examples of quality sources of complex carbohydrates:

Brown rice

Potatoes

Brown bread

Pasta

Oats

Pita bread

15. You’re not motivated

Finally, if you’re not gaining it may be due to lack of motivation. Can you honestly say you put in 100% every time you hit the gym? There are several ways you can help yourself stay motivated and focused on your goals.

Keep a training diary

Set small bi-weekly achievable goals (use your training diary to record results, good or bad)

Take before and after pictures

Get a picture of someone you want to look like and stick it someplace you’ll see it all the time.

Get involved with discussions about muscle building and learn more (check out our forum)

Watch training and workout videos from the pros before you train

Fire yourself up before a session with some music that gets you going

OK, let’s recap.

Let’s quickly recap what I’ve just talked about in this article. So if you want to build muscle and gain weight you need to…

Know how many calories your body needs, then eat 500 more than that every day.

Eat the right amount of protein, carbs and fats in your diet.

Eat 6-7 meals spread out evenly throughout the day.

Keep yourself hydrated all day, whether you’re working out or not.

Get a good workout routine to suit your goals.

If you’re not growing, change your routine.

Make sure you’re progressively adding more weight.

Always use correct exercise technique

Do the right exercises for your goal

Train your legs as hard as the rest of your body

Get enough rest between workouts and muscle groups

Get enough sleep

Have good post workout nutrition and supplementation

Have good pre workout nutrition

Keep motivated!

I hope this article has shown you the light, and you can see where you’ve been going wrong. If not, you can always head over to our muscle building forum and ask one of our experienced members for some advice on your training, workout, supplements or diet.

I've seen gains in a few days doing exactly what this article says. I have made a few tweaks to take into account individuality, my genetics, body type etc but after reading this it reaffirms what I'm seeing in the mirror. Massive motivator.

This is mostly all broscience. There are no scientific citations/inline citations to certain claimed materials -- whether or not self-tested or peer-reviewed/etc.

Basically this is all a suggestion -- none of it is actually backed by concrete science.

That's the problem with the "fitness industry" -- it's backed by broscience, hearsay, half-truths and personal opinions. Nothing in the industry is backed, for the most part, by tested science or even any form of technical conjectures. It would be nice if we knew "why" any of this worked (or any demonstrative evidence/reasoning to back most of this up) or should be taken as excellent advice -- and not just because some guy on a website says to do it.

Of course anyone eating a 500 calorie surplus above TDEE every single day will look "bigger" -- they'll be putting on a good, rough pound of pure fat every single WEEK, give or take. Fat pads muscle, which gives the illusion of getting "bigger."

The only way you can truly attest to how "big" (muscle-wise) you really are is to be fairly lean. Fattening your ass up on huge amounts of calories and lifting weights is just fooling yourself and others.

Lean people can't pad anything with fat to look "bigger" so they're the best example to look at when it comes to muscle-building progression, rather than the tubby person who keeps "growing" every few months from slow fat accumulation.

I really, really, really hate it when you all talk about calories as if it is some scientific equation.

Calories doesn't even need to be mentioned.

All one needs to think about is eating enough protein (3/4 to 1 gram per one pound of lean weight)i, make sure you have enough carbs for energy on workout days if you do a full-body workout, and everything else will fall into place.

"When you eat is just as important as what you eat. The days of eating “3 square meals” are long gone. Research has shown that eating more smaller meals is not only great for promoting a fast metabolism, but helps maintain, lose, and gain weight. Think of your body like a log fire. If you put too much wood on at once, the fire burns slow and sluggish. But if you gradually add more wood as the fire gets bigger, it burns more efficiently and gets bigger."

There is literally no scientific evidence that supports this claim. Speculation and anecdotes don't get you very far in 2016.

I'm 13 years old 5 ft 8 inches 167 cm and 39 kilos. I eat a ton of food and yet i am not seeing any fats or any increase of weight.. I went to see a physician with my parents and my doctor seems to advice me to eat a lot of food and any food at all. Also I really want to gain any muscles this summer since I have a lot of free time . So IF anyone got any idea on what should I do . Please help. I'm seriously getting annoyed being called a stick-like person :(.

Keep a constant workout ik its hard bro I have fast metabolism and I am suffering through this I have gain so far and ima keep on going eats egg!not everyday but do it sometimes a week get a workout routine watch youtube video and learn off that to get more bigger hope this work right now i'm not at the gym but I do home workout like push and squats just keep going you'll make it I know my grammar is way off sorry about that

Oh also.....stop saying that u arent eating enough count your calories and keep a constant work out, don't back away from snack.... well.... healthy snack and eat every two hours or so stop saying that u arent eating enough its time to make a change

I realize the craze over these workout shakes are warranted and help maintain nutrition in our crazy chaotic lives. The problem is, I can't take any of them. I have IBD. I can't have any dairy products (proteins or sugars) because I'm allergic to dairy- literally. I can't have pea, egg, soy or any other protein as I have the worst reaction from them. I can however have an egg in its natural form. I can have salmon... Other than that- I'm not sure how to increase my protein without gaining to much fat. I'm currently 125 lbs and 64 inches. Id love advice on increasing my protein with things that are soy and dairy free because I've been realizing that they add soy and dairy to everything. Of'course I can eat a chicken breast or a steak... What else? My workout:
I run on alternating days ( 3 miles on weekdays, 6 miles weekends at 7-8mph pace with sprinting)
Arms: I do all arm centered machines at gym three days a week. I do a circuit of free weights after including chin-ups with about 30lbs assistance still. My free weights are 35lbs. Most arm machines I'm using 55-70lbs. I preform 4 sets of max reps which is usually 12-15 depending on exercise.

I eat healthy with no dairy as it eliminates a great portion of fat;however, I still am not gaining muscle after months of increasing weight and intensity. I know it has to be calorie or protein. I recently stopped doing cardio on training days because doing cardio afterward wasn't reaping any results.

Dude just stop running so much if you want to run do it less your burning way to many calories with this running. Focus on sprints instead of long distance running. Dont do machine training or smith. Do free weight barbell exercise. Focus on your main lifts like squat and deadlifts, bench press, rows, pull UPS dips. And exercise your core work including your inner obliques and tranverse abdominus. You could do legs one day and then upper body the next and the day after those 2 days rest and do upper and lower body again. And ret for 2 more days. This is a simple and common workout plan that alot of people use. You could run on the days your not lifting or what ever. Legs you could squat and deadlifts as your main workout then for auxiliary lifts do front squats and stiff leg deadlifts. Upper body do your bench and row 1st then do your dips and pull UPS as you can. Try to eat more and drink enough water at least your body weight ounces. Get enough sleep so your body can recover and grow. Learn proper technique for every lift and focus on moving more weight on the bar and the muscles will come. You can work out your core at the end of each workout or your off days. But work it out. Be patient getting big and muscular wont happen over night however you will get results with the right workout, nutrition and the rest to recover.

I have been training for 17 months from now. in the early months of my workout I did see considerable difference in my mass of my body getting shaped. but later after 4 to 5 months it stopped to grow. now after 17 months I thing I am doing something wrong and not gaining anything.

Hello, and thanks to the author of this article for covering everything so well. As someone who hasn't worked out alot in teens and early 20s, I feel I have much potential and definitely count as a 'beginner' lifter. The problem is, even before I find fault in potentially not exerting myself hard enough and/or often enough, I know I struggle badly with factor # 1; also a bit with #12 (enough sleep). I have erratic sleep patterns and don't always sleep to easily if others around me are still awake. This can easily be the more minor problem that I will hopefully find a way to overcome. Major problem still being #1- enough calories. I know I am relatively an ectomorph- probably somewhere between ectomorph and mesomorph, but closer to the former. Calorie counting seems like an exercise in futility and laughableness. I know I need to be able to measure , track, and record important factors. But how do you tell how much calories is in a small or medium piece of squash??! Everyday foods that aren't straight out of a package or fast-food and you're unsure of their portion size- how do you know how much calories these are?? In anycase, if I at least for one day get through to estimating and actually counting calories- as if I have nothing else to do or think about- I will be glad. I'll just try to model all other days like that one to minimize or rid myself of the counting issue on future occasions. Weight scales for food?? Don't have one. Any help is appreciated.

Also an aside question: do pushups mostly work arms and shoulders only, for the person who is weaker in those areas (and feels he hardly gets much chest exertion from this)?

less of the supplements eat real food ofcoarse you could eat the food while drinking your protein that could work but your actually replacing meals with your supplement you should never skip a meal supplements are there to help along with food to get you bigger, you need to do good sets when working out push your body to the limit and you will see results

Very new to this and at my age of 32, I know I can't eat as I did when I was 16 and have the lean body that I did. I gained weight a while back, 230 lbs., and have lost it all. I am now at my high school weight of 145 but I'm not as lean as I was when I was younger. I drink water all day long but feel bloated at the end of the day and that feeling is was makes me feel tired at the gym. Is there a way I can get this bloated feeling to go a way? It's slowing me down and keeps me from eating too. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

hey its been almost 6 months since i joined a gym nearby. i was slightly overweight. so i focussed on weight loss as well as muscle. after 6 months i dont see much gain but strength has increased. weight remains constant now. i can do 12.5 hammer curls of 10 reps and 4 sets, with tricep pushdown at 45 kg 4 sets. can u suggest me how can i increase muscle size?
i supplement myself with one scoop of iso100 whey after workout. i want to gain some size. i have strength but not size. what should i do?

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Hi, I am a 21 year old male who has been working out for around 2 months. I feel i am doing most things right although i aint getting the results. heres what you need to know, i am 6", 175lbs. Also, i am and endomorph

My workout:
I purchased the arnold encyclopedia of bodybuilding and am near enough copying the level 1 6 day workout, i workout in the house so cant do it exact but i have added different excersices to compensate for the machines i dont have.

I always workout in the 8-12 rep range, at roughly 75-85% of my one rep max, however i add 2kg per set and workout for four sets of each exersice.

I always feel i get a good pump and enjoy my workout but i am not getting the results, where am i going wrong?

I get at least 8 hours sleep per night, stick to my diet and do not eat any rubbish, i have worked out i am gettin aroun 213 grams of protein, but as i am an endomorph i try to keep the fat low and calories low.

i know it does not happen overnight but i am considering giving up, supplements are expensive and so is eating clean, so why waste the money is what i am thinking.

Hello. I'm a 14 year old in high school. I work on my shoulders, triceps, biceps a lot. Sometimes chest, stomach, legs and forearms. I'm pretty strong for my size, I can beat people much bigger than me in arm wrestles, if that counts as a benchmark. I'm also very light, around 10 stone to be precise.
But my question is:
-Why am I getting stronger, but not bigger?-
I use a heavy weight, so I can just do around 10 reps, about 5 sets. I don't workout that often, Maybe 3 times a week at minimum. And honestly, I don't really diet either. I do eat a lot of calories though. What can I do to improve?

hi wassup well i have been hitting gym 3-4 days a week but no gains really ..work out for 45 mins ..but i feel my muscles keep getting shifted within my body ..not able to add any new muscle ..i feel my internal protein(muscles) are fuelling the muscles i hit on that particular day ..so when i hit upper body my lower body compensates and vice versa ,.any solution
i do compound movements
monday- shoulder trapezius
tues- back biceps
wednesday-off
thursday - chest and triceps
friday-off
saturday -legs and calves
exercises included flat bench press ,inclined bench press,close grip bench press,skull cursher...wide grippull down ,deadlifts,bent over row.close grippull down ,biceps curl ,hammer curl,squat &miscellaneous legs exercises,military press
ifollow each of the things u said and yet not able to gain weight ..any medical condition i may be suffering from or do i have low testesterone levels (i have a lump beneath my nips which makes me think i have low testesterone)

hey guys, im not sure if i am meeting the gain expectation. im 19, mesomorph and have been working out for nearly a year now. my aim was to get bulk. i was 141lbs now i am 161lbs (thats 20lbs gain). im eating a lot and consistently throughout the day. i can see that i have gone leaner, i gained a little bit of height too. but i dont believe i am as big as some friends that have started later than me. they are the same age and body type, but i see they have better body shape.
i dont take any protein powders or anything, just bought whey protein yesterday actually. i just thought maybe that is the case? that im not meeting my caloric/ protein intake, but i checked my caloric intake, and its around 3500 calories a day (no fast or junk food at all, all veggies and meat and all that healthy stuff)
so in general, is 20lbs gain in one year good, as in meeting the expectations or not. (i know that not all that is lean muscle, but i can tell its close, cause my body fat hasnt changed much)
thank you

Steve, I'm 28 64kg trying to gain muscle mass, I work 7am to 1630 ish. My question is when should I work out and eat my meals and shakes? Currently I eat a large ish breaky and lunch with 3 or 4 snacks between, then work out mon,tue,fri after work followed by dinner then a shake before bed. I don't think I'm getting enough kalories but can't see when to fit it all in? Should I wait till after dinner to work out?

Sir i am 5ft 10 inchs and my weight is 77kg . i want to build muscle...which i am not able to build...i had read ur article...so sir i wanna ask u that can i take a weight gainer to fullfill my carbs intake....along wid protien..?i want to build lean muscle not fat...so it will be good to take a weight gainer rich in carbs to fullfill my carbs intake..?

I don't understand. I do all of the above mentioned and I am only getting stronger, I am not gaining any weight on the scale. I eat before and after a workout, I make sure I get enough calories each day, and enough protein each meal, I change up the rep-range in my workout routine every week, I sleep 6-8 hours every day, I only train a muscle group once a week, and I go to the gym 4 days a week. I do cardio 3 times a week, maybe this is the problem? Someone help?

First of all, congratulations!
This article is amazing, I learnt a lot with it.
I have a question:
Would you allow me translate this article to brazilian portuguese / spanish, and post it in communities and forums?
I think it will be very helpful to people who can´t read in english.
Of course, I will mention who was the author and the link for original article.
Thanks in advance,

I started working out 3 days a week a few months ago, and I have noticed I am gaining weight. I've switched between a lot of different protein mixes, and I am working to increase my caloric intake (due to financial restrictions, it's hard for me to get adequate foods to eat multiple times a day until next month hopefully). Regardless, I try to get in close to 3000 calories a day. I weight around 165, but from eating so much, I can see some fat in my stomach. I have noticed my muscles getting bigger, and my lifts are heavier now. I am worried that if I start picking up cardio again to rid some of my belly fat, I will slowly start to lose weight again, and lose all progress I have made so far.

As I'm sure you are aware, it takes a calorie surplus to build muscle mass. Unfortunately, this also leads to your body storing a bit of fat. You can limit this with your diet, adjusting calories where needed. Be careful not to cut too many, obviously. I recommend cardio on rest days with any mass building routine, so don't worry about losing progress as a result. The important thing is to pay attention to how your body responds. If you're losing weight, then adjustments need to be made.

hi i am 20 years of age i am 60 kg with 5.8 ft.i would like to gain mass on my body i am workin out almost 4 months now.no chage at all.
here it is my work out rotine
monday..bicep tricep chest trap
tuesday leg,abs,
wed....bicep tricep shoulder
thursday rest
friday.. chest abs bicep tricep
saturday..legs shoulder trap back
so my diet is like regular food
i am asian so i eat much rice
morning egg with bread
lunch..fast food mac,subway,burger king,or grill cause i need to work at lunch time
dinner,,rice with chicken,vegetable,white rice
and i also take protin shake called muscle and size gainer
so need some help please ...

I lost alot of muscle over time because I've gotta busy and I'm also a ectomorph and I need help from you like maybe you could email me a workout routine please? My bench used to be my bodyweight (like 110) now it's only 60 pleAse help me and give me some tips for beat muscle growth and how long it will tAke, thank you.

hi Steve, this question may be strange and weird but this has what happened over past 6months with me while weightlifting to gain muscle, im a ectomorph and weigh 136lb(current weight) i started to workout about 6 months ago during which i took ON Serious mass weight gainer suppliment , although i noticed a good change in weight and strength it wasent the issue, i increased my height instead of building muscle ,im 21years old now and i went from 175cm to 177 cm while taking ON serious mass, later which i noticed my increased height more than my muscle gains, i left suppliments for a month due to budget cuts and later bought another pack of MHP up your mass,, and again this time instead of gaining muscles over period of another 3 months i noticed yesterday that my height went from 177cm to 179.4cm, im quite not understanding why my body is increasing my height instead of building muscle ,my nutritional intake is correct , taking teh rigth amountt of carbs, proteins and fats, 6months before my weight was 124lbs now i weight 136lbs ,although my weight has increased when i look in mirror i look almost similar to what i looked 6months back, but what in the world is going on inside my body?

Hi Steve and all, i am new to going to the gym im getting into it and have great motivation but am still pretty clueless!! I need a good weekly eating plan and a plan of what to work each day i go 3 times a week to my regular gym can you help me out with guidelines what to eat and what to work which days or point me in a good direction to elsewher, Thanks found youre pages useful and have saved them to read